Lacing-hook



(No Model.)

' M. BRAY.

Laoing-Hook.

No. 228,509. Patented June 8, I880.

gum-111m F6 12. F6 10. F6 13.

. Fig.9. '2

Witnesses I nvntor: @/d m/wd v 6%. Z6 90%! by Attorney NPYETERS. PHOTO-LITNOGRAPHEJ. WASHINGTON. D C

UNITED STATES TPATENT Orrrcn.

MELLEN BRAY, OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

LAClNG-HOOK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 228,509, dated June 8, 1880.

Application filed March 25, 1880.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MELLEN BRAY, of Newton, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Lacing-Hooks for Boots and Shoes, of which the following-taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

The object of my invention is the production of a cheap and at the same time a serviceable lace-hook for boots and shoes and it consists in constructing a lace-hook head from a single piece of wire by bending its two ends, so as to produce a blank having in each end an eye or loop substantially circular in form, embossing or swaging said blank to reduce its thickness at the two ends or around its two eyes, and forming the stock around one of said eyes to a concavo-convex shape, and at the other concave upon one side and flat upon the other, and bending said blank into the shape of a letter U turned upon its side, with one loop directly over the other, with their concave faces toward each other, a tubular rivet being inserted through the eye, having one concave side and one flat side, with its head between the two loops, as will be more fully described.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a plan of my improved lacing-hook. Fig. 2 is a side elevation. Fig. 3 is a vertical section on line a: 00 on Fig. 2. Fig. 4: is a vertical section of the same set in a piece of leather. Fig. 5 is a plan of the swaged blank. Fig. 6 is a vertical section of the rivet. Fig. 7 is an inverted plan of the blank with the rivet inserted therein. Fig. Sis a longitudinal section of the same. Figs. 9, 10, and 11 are, respectively, a plan, edge view, and longitudinal section, of the swaged blank drawn twice its actual size (in the original drawings.) Fig. 12 is a transverse section on line y y on Fig. 9; and Fig. 13 is a similar section on line 2 2 on Fig. 9.

In the construction of this lace-hook a piece of round wire is first cut to the desired length, and its two ends are bent so as to form two eyes or loops, a and 1:, connected by a straight section of wire, said loops being in the same plane, when the blank thus formed is sub- (No model.)

jected to the action of dies to reduce the thickness of its two ends and change the form of the cross-section of the wire, which forms the loops a and b, pressing the stock of the loop a into a concavo-convex form and the stock of the loop I) concave upon one side and flat upon the other, while the connecting-section remains unchanged, as shown in Figs. 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13. A tubular rivet, c, is then inserted in the eye of the loop I), with its head upon the concave side thereof, and secured therein by upsetting the tubular shank of the rivet to throw out a fin, (1, upon the other side of the loop I), as shown in Fig. 8. The blank is then bent at the middle of its length into a U-shaped form, to bring the loop a directly over I), with its concave side toward 1) and the head of the rivet 0 between the two loops, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, said loops being connected by the round and curved neck 0,

located eccentrically to the axis of the rivet c.

and the center of the rounded button'shaped loop a.

By this construction a strong and durable stud is produced at a comparatively small cost, and one that has a neat and tasty appearance when secured upon the boot or shoe, the hook-head being made entirely without waste.

I am aware that lacing-hooks have been made from wire in one piece, including the attaching-prongs; and also that lacing-hooks have been made in two pieces, the hook-head being made from sheet metal and the attaching portion in the form of a tubular rivet, a patent having been allowed to me for such sheet-metal hook and tubular rivet-fastening; but my present invention is an improvement upon both of the constructions above referred to.

I do not claim, broadly, making a lacinghook from wire, or making a lacing-hook in two parts; but

WVhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. In a lacing-hook, a'hook-head formed from a single piece of wire bent and embossed, as set forth, in combination with a tubular rivet made separate therefrom, but secured thereto, as a means of attaching the hookthe hook to the shoe or other material, sub- 10 head to the material, substantially as destantially as described.

sori bed. Executed at Boston, Massachusetts, this 15th 2. In a shoe -laee hook, the loops a and 1), day of March, A. D. 1880.

5 embossed, as set forth, and connected together MELLEN EBAY by the eccentrieally-located neck a, all made from a single piece of Wire, in combination Witnesses: with the tubular rivet 0, inserted through and E. A. HEMMENWAY, secured in the loop I), as a means of fastening 'VVALTER E. LOMBARD. 

